


when my time comes around

by mollivanders



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: F/M, Post-Movie: Veronica Mars (2014)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-24 06:59:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19718548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mollivanders/pseuds/mollivanders
Summary: “I love you,” he murmurs in her ear, and she’s still letting him close, still pulls him towards her, still breathes his name out and shudders out her fears.(Do you love me?)He doesn’t ask. The memory is sharper than poison, lingering in his veins, until she rolls them over, pressing a kiss to the edge of his jaw.“I wouldn’t be here,” she says quietly, “if I didn’t .”(A different memory springs to mind, long drives down the back roads against a sky lit up by city lights.)“Maybe,” she adds, as if whatever she’s about to say agitates her more than him facing another murder charge, “when this is over – ” She breaks off, worrying her bottom lip, and he shifts to look at her more closely. “Even if they let you back in the ranks, you could stay here.”(She doesn't saywhere it's safe- there's no safety in Neptune - but he hears it all the same.)





	when my time comes around

**Author's Note:**

> Dyaz-stories on tumblr prompted "What did I do to deserve you?" + Logan/Veronica. Title comes from Hozier's 'Worksong'. I certainly don't own anything related to Veronica Mars, aside from my Kickstarter fund gift, and my knowledge of military protocol is Google-based.

In Neptune, the sun rises late, weak rays skirting the edges of the water. It sets late too, dipping into the waves like a candle, and casts a warm glow over the burning town. It burns more, now that Veronica’s back.

(She’s still back.)

So is he.

He doesn’t want to think about why he’s here right now – the reasons that led to it, the choices he made and didn't make, why he’s really home – and for now, neither does she. He just wants to think about how she leans back into him, how trust isn’t something totally absent in her movements, and how after everything that went wrong, they can still cling to a semblance of a home.

(Damned if he’s going to think about anything else right now.)

“Is it bad?” she asks, turning to rest her head against his heart, gaze cast out to the setting sun.

“Yeah,” he admits, half a breath, and she sighs, tightening her grip. Slowly, with the ease of an ancient, the sun slips out of sight, cloaking them in darkness.

+

At this point he’s not sure, so he asks her.

“You think all the murder charges against me make me look like a target?” he asks over breakfast, and she shoots him a _look_.

“You mean, instead of the fact that you were cleared twice?” she asks.

 _An Echolls family trait_ , he wants to quip, but the morning isn’t quite ruined yet - he manages to hold back.

“Something like that,” he agrees, and pours her a coffee. His hands are shaking; he’s already had three cups and it’s not past ten yet.

(His nerves aren't from the caffeine.)

“People love a good story,” she says, and this time, even though she doesn’t meet his eyes, there’s no threat in it.

“Some might say third time’s the charm,” he adds and she shoots him the _look_ again.

He doesn’t press the issue.

+

She sneaks onto a military base, and Logan wants to thank every deity he’s ever heard of because somehow she doesn’t get caught. They _suspect_ it was her, but when he gets the phone call from his lawyer about stolen evidence, and not pushing his luck, he’s able to plead plausible deniability. He knows how lucky he is the murder happened here; here and off-base; here, where he's not ten thousand miles from Veronica and any hope of clearing himself.

He doesn’t rest easy knowing she’s putting herself at risk again, and most of all _for_ him, but he doesn’t mention it when she gets home. He’s not stupid.

(He knows how this song goes.)

“Find anything today?” he asks instead, open-ended, and she turns from her laptop to grin at him, wolfish.

If she’s hiding something – something more than what she tells – it’s probably better for them both if he doesn’t know.

+

The tension builds, easy. This time when she (finally) probes his alibi, he sinks the hurt somewhere deep inside. She suspects. She has to. The fact that it took her this long to actually suspect him should give him comfort.

(It doesn’t.)

He goes over it again, and tells her the worst of it, hiding no details. He’s seen the disappointment in her eyes before, but with Veronica – there’s a lot worse that can be waiting just behind it.

“Believe me?” he asks, tentative, and there’s a long pause before she releases the breath she was holding.

“Yeah,” she says. “I do.”

(He knows the _for now_ is implied – knows better than most he’ll have to live with it.)

+

“I love you,” he murmurs in her ear, and she’s still letting him close, still pulls him towards her, still breathes his name out and shudders out her fears.

( _Do you love me?_ )

He doesn’t ask. The memory is sharper than poison, lingering in his veins, until she rolls them over, pressing a kiss to the edge of his jaw.

“I wouldn’t be here,” she says quietly, “if I didn’t .”

(A different memory springs to mind, long drives down the back roads against a sky lit up by city lights.)

“Maybe,” she adds, as if whatever she’s about to say agitates her more than him facing another murder charge, “when this is over – ” She breaks off, worrying her bottom lip, and he shifts to look at her more closely. “Even if they let you back in the ranks, you could stay here.”

(She doesn't say _where it's safe_ \- there's no safety in Neptune - but he hears it all the same.)

“Worried I’m going to go missing?” he asks, searching her eyes and seeing the truth. Even if she clears him - somehow proves it was his CO’s brother – gets his discharge commendation changed – his back would be an open, easy target, shrapnel falling from the sky.

“Yeah,” she admits, her body full of tension, and he wonders, even if he stays, even if he remakes himself for the third or fourth time, if that’ll ever truly change, or if it's just part of her. He almost wouldn't recognize her without it, if he's being honest.

(They both of them have their scars, and he won't challenge her for hers. Not now, after everything. Not after this.)

"We’d have to take care of the Russian mob first,” he quips and a smile flutters around her eyes again. If _that_ can make her smile –

“Just leave that to me,” she says. “If you come home.”

He drops a kiss to her nose and she scrunches her eyes at him, and for just a moment, they're nineteen all over again.

(It doesn't last.)

+

Murder charges dropped and a dishonorable discharge converted to an honorable discharge; he’s starting to think there’s nothing beyond the reach of Veronica’s superpowers.

“What did I do to deserve you?” he murmurs, but Veronica just shakes her head, the ghost of a smile skirting her lips as she catches his eyes.

“We’ll have to see,” she answers, more than a promise, and for once there's light in both her eyes and her words.

(For him - for them - it's a banquet to live off of.)

_Finis_


End file.
